Transcript of AVGN Episode Dracula

Oh, another night. Shitty games. That's all I do: Is play shitty games, and I have so fuckin' many, I'll probably be playin' til the dawn. It's a sacrifice to the soul, and it's sucking me dry. (thunderclap) And how appropriate, because tonight, it's Dracula. Now when it comes to Dracula games, most people instantly think of the Castlevania series. But I'm going to delve into the fucking catacombs of Hell.(thunderclap)

Our first exhibit is The Count on the VIC-20. Now what the fuck is a VIC-20? Well, it's an old Commodore computer from 1980. Thought the Commodore 64 was primitive? Well, check out the VIC-20. Look at that cartridge. That's what you'd call a game. Trying to jam the fucker in is a real bitch. Even worse than the Intellivision. (Clip from DoubleVision Part 1: "It's like trying to stick your dick in a Cheerio.") The graphics are non-existent, because it's a text game. It says, "I see I was put to bed. It's afternoon and I overslept. What shall I do now?" I'm gonna write "Get out of bed." "Don't know what "OUT" is. What shall I do now?" Wake up. "Don't know how to "WAKE" something." I don't know what to tell it, but I have the instructions, and it gives you some suggestions of words you can use. So let's try "Climb." "Can't do that...YET!" Ohh, so you're teasin' me. Go. "I also need a direction." Go right. "Don't know what "RIGHT" is." Go left. "Don't know what "LEFT" is." Eat pillow. "Yuck!" Okay, so I ate the pillow? I didn't expect that. Get up. "I'm in a bedroom. Closed window. Brass bed. North." Uh, ok, uh, go north? "What shall I do now?" Okay, so I went north? What did that do? Go east. "OK. What shall I do now?" Go east again. "Use 1 or 2 words only." Oh, okay, I'll give you two words: fuck you! "Don't know how to "FUCK" something." (The Nerd facepalms in annoyance)

(sighs) Next up, Dracula on the Intellivision. What's cool about this game is that you actually play as Dracula. Now I'm trying it out on the Intellivision II. It's basically a redesigned model, which you'd think would be an improvement, BUT WHAT IN THE HOLY MOTHER OF ASS IS THIS?!(refers to the AC adapter box) If the old Intellvision had a simple plug, why does the newer model have a big fatass AC adapter? (pulls out power strip and plugs in AC adapter) Anyway, you leave your grave and you go around sucking peoples' blood which is kinda cool. Dracula has a big mouth, like Pac-Man. The only thing you can't kill are the wolves, and the police who throw wooden stakes. You can turn into a bat and fly away, but then a vulture comes after you. And the only way to kill police is to transform people into zombies and send them after, but to control the zombie, you have to pick up the other controller while controlling Dracula at the same time. So it's like Raiders of the Lost Ark, you really need a second player. The instruction manual text is pretty funny. "You say you're always thirsty, Count Dracula? The police harass you and birds and animals are unfriendly and you're allergic to the sun? Well, my man, I'd say you've got some grave problems!" Who would call Dracula "my man"?

Next, we have Drac's Night Out on the NES. Now, this game was never released, so what I'm holding is a rare reproduction cartridge, which is the only way it can be played. It was also a big promotion for sneakers, the Reebok Pumps. You play as Dracula, trying to leave his castle in the middle of the night to find his lady love Mina. There's a bunch of villagers who kill Dracula simply by touching him. I don't know what kind of sense that makes. But your only method of attack is waving a medallion or shaking some object, I really don't know what it's supposed to be. But if you use it on someone, it hypnotizes them. It may seem simple, but you don't always have this item. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I think it has something to do with the blood meter but I really don't know. So you can't count on it most of the time, so you have to flick switches which either control barriers to block your enemies or activate traps. Rolling balls, Frankenstein monsters, ghosts, or chandileers. So you need a lot of strategy to use these traps at the right time. When you stun people, you can suck their blood, and I think you can turn into a bat but I've never seen it happen. But your only real powerups are the Reebok Pumps. They let you run faster and jump higher. You really need to get these shoes, because without them, you get your ass handed to you. That's what I call a powerup, and that's what I call a promotion. Reebok Pumps. You ain't shit without it. Pump it up and air it out. The game also has a time limit, which is a real pain in the ass. If you get stuck on the stairs, you're dead. You can't drop down or you die, so those stairs are your worst enemy. (tries to go down the stairs and gets killed by a villager) Fuck. (tries again, and dies again)Fuck! Even though it pisses me off, I can't really complain because this game was never released. It's like somebody took a shit and buried it and then someone else decided to dig it up. It's like, what do you expect?

Alright, on the Game Boy Color, let's try out Dracula: Crazy Vampire. What kind of title is that? We know Dracula's a vampire, and he's crazy, sure. (the title screen music) Sounds like Phantom of the Opera, (Phantom of the Opera theme) which sounds like Pink Floyd. ("Echoes" by Pink Floyd) Anyway, it's a typical overhead action/exploration game. Yeah, there's not really much to say. What's Dracula's deal? He's got a big head and his face, he's like DUUUUHH. It's kinda redundant, and there's no map, so I really don't know where I'm supposed to go, I'm just going around throwing bats at dogs. That's real creative.

Okay, now let's go for The Count's Countdown. Yeah, from Sesame Street. You get an option to Hop or Run, which is really weird. If you pick Hop, that's all you can do, just hop your way through the whole stage. I've never heard of something like that. Imagine if in Super Mario Bros. if you had a choice where you can only run or jump. So you pick a number, and the Count starts talking. ("Ah ha ha. Find 10.") Man, that's weird. So, you gotta go around and find the same number, or things that add up to that number. ("Ah ha ha.") So when you finish that, you go up to the clouds and you have to hit the blocks until the numbers come up, and then you hit the bell. ("Got it! Ah ha ha.") That's about the extent of that. Why am I playing this?

Okay, so this is Bram Stoker's Dracula on the NES. It's based on the Coppola movie of the same name, just as much as the movie is based on the novel, I suppose. I guess you're supposed to be Keanu Reeves. What's this, blocks with question marks, right out of Super Mario Bros.? Yeah, even the stages are kinda similar. Only seconds into the first level, I come to a wall. There's nowhere to go. I try jumping down, but that doesn't work, so I had to fuck about until I found out you're supposed to do this Groundstomp thing. Yeah, by jumping in the air and hitting down. Why the fuck do you gotta do that?! The music is just a scrambled mess of 8-bit chaos. (scrambled 8-bit music from "Bram Stoker's Dracula") I've made it to the first incarnation of Dracula, a shadow that emerges from the wall. There's not enough time to hit him. You can either get out of the way or try to attack. Most of the time I can only hit him when he's going the other way. He's just a pain in the ass.

Next, we have anotherBram Stoker's Dracula. This game was released on both the Super Nintendo and the Sega Genesis. Both versions are pretty much the same. Your sword is a joke, it's about as effective as a butterknife. The game's pretty simple, it's your average platformer. You wander all around fighting a boring array of enemies and search the place for an exit. You can't go in the exit until you find some strange old man who thinks about a weapon. Then, you can go find that weapon, or head straight to the exit. What's that all about? He thinks of a weapon? Can you read minds? Why doesn't he just give you the weapon and say "Here. Now go to the exit." He doesn't even tell you that part. The bosses are senseless, the first one has this gravitational pull that sucks you towards him. There's no strategy, you'll never be able to get close enough to attack him and avoid him at the same time, so the only thing that makes sense is to stand right next to him and just keep hitting him and hope that he dies before you do. The strangest enemy I've noticed is this green plant thing. Just looks like something's wrong. When I saw another one, I figured out what it is. You see, they're supposed to be coming out of the walls. What's this shit? It looks like it's suspended in the air. Were they too lazy to just flip it around? What I really fucking hate are these goddamn spears. Aw aff- I mean, fuck! How the Hell am I supposed to get past these things? There's no fucking pattern. Your only hope is to dodge the first one and just run through it, and in most games, when you get hit, you're invincible for a brief moment, but here, you have no recovery time. You just take damage until you die, and it can drain all your life in one fast combo. FUCK! Game Over? That's it? Overall, it's a mediocre platformer game and a cheap exploitation of the Coppola movie. Wait, who's this? (sees the name of producer Fred Fuchs in the credits) Fred Fush-Fred Fuchs? (He prononces "fuchs" as "fucks")FRED FUCHS? FRED FUCHS!Oh, my God, Fred Fuchs!Ohhh, my God, it's Fred Fuchs! Ah-hahahaw, Fred Fuchs! (Director's note: It's actually pronounced "fooks".)

Okay, one more. Now really, this can go on forever. Bram Stoker's Dracula on the Sega CD. I already commented on this game in my Sega CD review, but it's just so bad. It has impressive graphics for its time, and it has all these cutscenes where it shows clips from the movie, but it's so badly pixelated it's pointless. There's also this guy with a pipe reading a book. Why? I actually did manage to get to Dracula, at least in his first form, and he looks just as laughable as he did in the movie. But the most ridiculous part is when you die.

Jonathan Harker: Gnnrgghh-

Dracu-Nerd: HRRRRR! What the Hell, is that clip even from the movie? I don't know, maybe it's from Bill & Ted.

Jonathan Harker: Gnnrgghh-

Dracu-Nerd: The game looks amazing for its time, but the control is what kills it. It's so awkward trying to jump. You fall through shit, and the attacks are so delayed. It's impossible to turn around and hit your enemies before they hit you, you just wish you had a whip or a sword or something, not your bare hands. All you get is this stupid little kick to kick the fuckin' rats. Yeah, that's all it is is just rats and bats. How many fucking games need to have bats? Like seriously, I know it's Dracula,BUT WHY DO SO MANY GAMES HAVE SO MANY FUCKING BATS?!

Dracu-Nerd: Seriously. I... FUCKING... HATE... BATS. (a bat flies up at Dracu-Nerd's face and he bites its head off. More bats come towards the Nerd and he fights them all off.) Ugh. I'm sick of it all! Morning sun, VANQUISH ME! (The Nerd opens the blinds and gets vanquished by the morning sun.)